Observer 3 provides protection for AIDS charity event

The Viennese Life Ball ensured the safety and protection of its guests and celebrity attendees with the help of the Observer 3 IP video management system from Netavis

For the 17th time in a row, Europe biggest AIDS Charity Event - the Life Ball - took place in Vienna's city hall on 16th of May 2009. With celebrities like Bill Clinton, Eva Longoria and Pamela Anderson, fancy costumes and an extravagant fashion show, the Life Ball has once again succeeded this year, in raising the awareness for AIDS.

About 40000 guests participated live in the opening ceremony of the Life Ball 2009 in front of Vienna's city hall. 3740 of them continued to party inside the city hall until the early hours. In order to guarantee the security of these thousands of guests inside and outside the city hall, the Salzburg IT company conova communications, was instructed to install a video surveillance solution, together with Thomas Tauscher of Uraeus Sicherheitstechnik GmbH and Marius Steurer of steurer 'CC' GmbH.

The core of this IP-based surveillance solution was the software platform Observer 3 of Netavis - a flexible, scalable and robust software platform for server-based IP Video management offering live viewing, recording, Video Analytics and alarm management. It is cost-effective, runs on standard hardware and easily integrates with many different security systems and business applications. Regarding the choice of hardware, the security persons in charge relied on 20 Axis cameras and one HP Proliant ML 310 server.

Netavis as well as conova communication, Uraues Sicherheitstechnik GmbH and steurer "CC" insisted on providing the installed video surveillance solution for the period of the event, free of charge.

For the live monitoring in the control room in Lichtenfelsgasse, a professional workstation computer with two backlight projectors and two flat screens has been deployed. Thanks to the efficient and powerful client-on-server solution of Netavis Observer 3, it was possible to access live pictures of the cameras at the event location. The job of the security staff has been simplified significantly through the comprehensive display possibilities of alarms and events. Thus, a good overview of the happenings could be provided. For data privacy reasons, it was prohibited to record the data. Due to the flexible user configuration of Observer 3, this function could be deactivated easily.

The Life Ball 2009 was a definite triumph for all parties involved with an extraordinary show, impressed guests and generous donations. The video surveillance with Netavis Observer 3 enabled the security staff, to monitor the event and stay on top of things. Furthermore, the software platform convinced through its ease-of-use, stability and additional iCAT functionalities, e.g. people counting and object tracking. These functionalities, which were essential for professional surveillance of the event, were therefore highly appreciated by the security staff. Hence, Netavis Observer 3 contributed greatly to the safety of the event.